TORONTO — An Islamic school that had been using teaching materials that disparaged Jews and encouraged boys to keep fit for jihad has lost its license to use Toronto District School Board property.

The board suspended a permit issued to the Islamic Shia Study Centre, which operated the East End Madrassah out of a Toronto high school until an outcry last week over the content of its curriculum booklets.

“The Islamic Shia Study Centre will not be able to permit TDSB property until the police investigation is complete and they are able to demonstrate that they comply with board policies and procedures,” Ryan Bird, a TDSB spokesman, said Wednesday.

“Pending the outcome of the police investigation, we are willing to meet with the permit holder to discuss TDSB policies and procedures. As soon as we became aware of this complaint, we started to review the permit and the information that was available.”

The school said in a statement Thursday morning it was disappointed by the decision. “Our curriculum is not intended to promote hatred towards any individual or group of people; rather, the children are taught to respect and value other faiths and beliefs, and to uphold Canada’s basic values of decency and tolerance.”

But the school’s curriculum, which it has now taken off its website, referred to “crafty,” “treacherous” Jews and contrasted Islam with “the Jews and the Nazis.” The passages were from two books published by Iranian foundations.

The booklets also told children that Islam was the “best” religion, and provided a list of “unclean things,” including pigs, dogs and “a person who does not believe in Allah.” It said boys should be “healthy and strong” so they would be “ready for jihad whenever the time comes for it.”

Girls, meanwhile, were told to limit their involvement in physical activities and to instead engage in hobbies that would prepare them to become mothers and wives.

The York Region Police hate crimes unit launched an investigation after receiving a complaint from the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. The school apologized and promised to review its materials. The Islamic school had been teaching classes on Sundays at David & Mary Thomson Collegiate.

“We are pleased to note the TDSB has taken action in response to the alarming antisemitic hate taught to Muslim schoolchildren at Toronto’s East End Madrassah,” said Avi Benlolo, President and CEO of Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

“We hope the school board will now go one step further and put a plan in place to ensure no group is ever targeted as the Jewish community has been, and that ancient hatreds are never again endorsed and encouraged in Toronto classrooms.”

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which had complained to the school board, called the suspension “an excellent first step” but said it wants the ban made permanent.

“Given the presence of antisemitic passages in the curriculum, and the dubious activism of its religious leadership, it is clear that the madrassah has disqualified itself as a partner with the School Board on any level,” it said in a statement. “We are hopeful that the board comes to this conclusion in due course and that the madrassah is not welcomed back into our public schools.”

Neither the school principal nor the cleric affiliated with the centre could be reached for comment. Last week, Imam Syed Muhammad Rizvi told reporters the passages in question had been wrongly copied from two websites.

But they are actually excerpts from two books published by the Al Balagh Foundation in Tehran and the Mostazafan Foundation of New York, which the FBI alleges was a front organization controlled by the Iranian regime — whose president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is widely known for his antisemitism, Holocaust denial and threats to wipe out Israel.

“As we have said before, the excerpted material at issue should never have been a part of our curriculum,” said the statement, signed “Principal, East End Madrassah.” In a video posted online, Imam Rizvi dismissed as “absolutely baseless” concerns that school teaching materials were written in Iran.

::National Post – Stewart Bell

Time Magazine devoted its lead story to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is featured on the cover of the renowned publication, under the heading “King Bibi.”

Underneath the heading, in the article, titled “Bibi’s choice,” author Richard Stengel describes Netanyahu’s unshakable political stature, writing that he “is poised to become the longest-serving Israeli Prime Minister since David Ben-Gurion, the founding father of Israel. He has no national rival. His approval rating, roughly 50%, is at an all-time high.”

However, Stengel notes that the prime minister will be facing difficult decisions in his efforts to secure the future of Israel.

“To be a historic figure, one must make history. Now we will find out what the king really believes. Is he a statesman or a pol, a builder or a general, the Israeli leader who can finally make peace with the Palestinians or the one who launches a potentially disastrous unilateral attack on Iran?”

Netanyahu on cover of Time

In the magazine’s online blog, which describes the article at length, Netanyahu is described as a controversial prime minister, whose latest move –forming a wide parliamentary coalition with Kadima party – is testimony to his political shrewdness.

The main question the author is concerned with is whether Netanyahu’s reinforced political position will make him the Israeli leader to finally forge peace with the Palestinians.

“The question is whether he is a prisoner of that history or can write a new narrative,” Stengel writes, adding that Netanyahu is “governing a coalition that will not leak or collapse if he opens negotiations. He will no longer have to look over his shoulder. He will not have to call elections at the drop of a hat. He has not had that before, and it gives him room to maneuver and room to compromise.

“With his bullet-proof majority, he has a chance to turn himself into the historic figure he has always yearned to be. He has become, as some commentators have dubbed him, the King of Israel,” Stengel writes.

::YNet

The United States has long been a major player in attempts to broker Middle East peace, but now Washington’s neighbor to the north is looking to get into the game.

Ten days after President Shimon Peres’s state visit to Canada, the president of the World Jewish Congress said he expects Canada to take on a new role in MIddle East peace talks.

Both Peres and Ronald Lauder were quoted in Canadian media reports as seeing Canada acting as a go-between. ”I believe that in the coming months, Canada can play a role and I think will be invited to play a role,” Lauder said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“Canada, by definition and inclination, is a bridge-building country,” Peres told Global News program The West Block with Tom Clark. ”[Canadians] don’t look for clashes. You look for pacification of the clashes.”

Both Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Canada this spring, and expressed thanks and appreciation for Canadian support of Israel.

Much like Washington, Ottawa has been one of official Jerusalem’s biggest boosters in the West, with Peres recently calling Canada ”an extraordinary friend.”

Last month, Canadian foreign minister John Baird told the AJC Global Forum that “Israel has no greater friend in the world today than Canada.”

Lauder made his remarks on Wednesday after a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Minister John Baird in Ottawa to discuss the situation in the Middle East, as well as anti-Semitism, The Canadian Press reported.

In the 1990s, Canada increased its role in the Middle East peace process, chairing the Refugee Working Group and founding a program to relocate Palestinian refugees from Sinai to Gaza.

::The Times of Israel

May 16, 2011, Ottawa — World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald Lauder, and Vice-president of the WJC Moshe Ronen, and Centre board member, met today with Foreign Minister John Baird. Amongst the topics discussed was Iranian nuclear proliferation, the Israel-Palestinian peace process, the rise in Anti-Semitism, and combatting Israel deligitimization.

If you can imagine what a mobile arcade looks like, then you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect when you encounter the Sony PlayStation Big Rig at the UJA Walk with Israel’s Renee & Irwin Nadal Festival, which begins at 12 p.m. at Ontario Place on Monday, May 21^st.

The Sony PlayStation Big Rig is an enormous air conditioned truck equipped with 13 PlayStation 3 gaming areas, 1 PlayStation Move, four PlayStation Vitas (Sony’s new handheld gaming system) and a VIP gaming lounge. The truck promises to provide hours of entertainment for kids of all ages.

Jamie Wise, who is chairing this year’s Walk along with co-Chairs Lauren Wise, Micki Mizrahi and Sam Mizrahi, says that he has fond memories of the Walk and the festival from years past.

“I remember the exciting feeling of being part of such a big crowd, being connected to the community, seeing the Israeli flags waving and hearing everyone cheering,” said Jamie. “It was a special feeling to see the support for Israel within our community… of course, a big highlight was always the festival at the end of the Walk – the music, the games and the food!”

This year’s festival will be jam-packed with fun activities for the whole family, including camel rides courtesy of Bowmanville Zoo, a petting zoo sponsored by the Toronto Heschel School, the IBI Architects Israeli Art Centre, amusement rides sponsored by the Forest Hill Jewish Learning Centre, a delicious kosher food court, and, of course, the Walk’s famous kosher barbeque, sponsored by Mizrahi Design Build. There will also be a main stage filled with entertainment, music and dancing.

Walk festivities begin with the Walk kick-off party at 9 a.m. at Coronation Park, where we’ll be treated to a special guest appearance by popular hip hop/R&B star JRDN. At 10 a.m. we’ll hit the streets of downtown Toronto in an incredible display of solidarity with our Jewish homeland. And then it’s time to let loose at the Renee & Irwin Nadal Festival.

Money raised by the Walk with Israel helps fund UJA’s ongoing transformative projects in Israel.

::Shalom Life

Toronto, ON — Recently, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs was made aware of curriculum issued by the Toronto-based East End Madrassah that contained antisemitic passages. In particular, the Level 8 curriculum document, which was publicly posted on the Madrassah’s website, equated the beliefs of Judaism with Nazism and claimed that “treacherous Jews” had “conspired to kill Prophet Muhammad”.

Upon learning today of the TDSB’s decision to suspend the East End Madrassah’s permit to use David & Mary Thompson Collegiate for its classes, David Spiro, Greater Toronto Co-Chair of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the advocacy arm of Canadian Jewish Federations, issued the following statement:

“We commend the Toronto District School Board for moving to suspend the East End Madrassah’s permit as an excellent first step, in accordance with the terms of the permit which allow the Board to revoke such arrangements with or without cause. Given the presence of antisemitic passages in the curriculum, and the dubious activism of its religious leadership, it is clear that the Madrassah has disqualified itself as a partner with the School Board on any level. We are hopeful that the Board comes to this conclusion in due course and that the Madrassah is not welcomed back into our public schools.”

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Photo: Twitter screenshot

A small group of people demonstrated in front of a UN office in Jerusalem Tuesday in support of a worker who used her Twitter account to send an incendiary message against Israel when rockets were falling on the South in March.

The gathering took place at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) during a visit here by a senior UN official, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Catherine Bragg.

Bragg came to examine both OCHA’s work here and the fallout from the tweeting incident.

During the March violence in the South, Khulood Badawi, a field officer for OCHA, posted a link to a photo of a father carrying a young girl covered in blood, along with the tweet: “Palestine is bleeding. Another child killed by #Israel… Another father carrying his child to a Grave in #Gaza.”

The picture, it emerged, was a Reuters photo from 2006 that depicted a Palestinian girl who died in an accident unrelated to Israel.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor expressed outrage at Badawi’s conduct, and called for her dismissal in a letter at the time to the Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos.

The UN, however, also came under pressure from Arab and Palestinian circles not to fire the worker.

Bragg, who arrived in the country Sunday and left Tuesday, is Amos’s deputy. She did not meet with Foreign Ministry officials during her visit, and Jerusalem is still waiting to hear from OCHA about how it intends to deal with the affair.

::JPost

The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) is pleased to bring you breaking news on issues that matter to you in real time.

Wednesday at approximately 11:15 am, Amir Khadir, the MNA for Mercier, presented his annual motion requesting that the National Assembly of Quebec commemorate ‘Nakba Day’, and once again he was rejected. By blocking any discussion on the motion the members of the Quebec Liberal party, the Parti quebecois, and the Coalition Avenir Quebec stood up for the legitimacy of the birth of the State of Israel. They did not allow themselves or the National Assembly to be used as a tool in Amir Khadir’s relentless efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel, and for this we applaud them.

This was yet another reminder of the increasingly warm relationship between Quebec and Israel. In January 2012 the President of the National Assembly Jacques Chagnon travelled to Israel at the invitation of the Speaker of the Knesset. The Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Yitzhak Vaknin was recognized at the National Assembly of Quebec just a few weeks ago. There are also several longstanding trade and cooperation agreements between Quebec and Israel.

For more information about CIJA please visit our websites at www.cerji.ca or in English at www.cija.ca , follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. To sign up to our mailing lists please email Eta Yudin

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs is a non-partisan organization creating and implementing strategies to improve the quality of Jewish life in Quebec and Canada, increase support for Israel, and strengthen both the Canada-Israel and Quebec-Israel relationships.

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The blocked motion read as follows:   «Que l’Assemblée nationale souligne la commémoration annuelle de la NAKBA, catastrophe, qui se tient le 15 mai en signe de solidarité avec les millions de Palestiniens et Palestiniennes qui vivent en apatride, de refuge en refuge, depuis qu’ils ont été chassés de leurs maisons et de leurs terres en 1948. » A full transcript can be found in French here (select 11:15)

The group, also known as QuAIA, skipped Pride last year to deny Mayor Rob Ford what it called a “pretext” to withdraw the city’s grant.

“We decided we didn’t want to be the scapegoat for Pride not getting funding from the city. But this year, we feel, well, it’s time to go back,” QuAIA member Tony Souza said Tuesday. “We are a queer group in the city. It so happens that the issue we’re talking about is controversial, but that doesn’t mean that the work that we do, which is basically for justice for people, should not be celebrated.”

To read the full article in The Toronto Star click here

Penslar will discuss the impact of this new book from Facing History and how it will help us to explore the roots of this ancient hatred, to better understand the present, and help change the future.